Audio hub

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for distributing audio. An audio system is provided that includes one or more audio interfaces, at least one of which is a wireless audio interface. An audio hub couples to the one or more audio interfaces and detects the presence of one or more headphones coupled to the wireless audio interfaces. The audio hub selectively establishes communication channel(s) to convey audio content between a plurality of devices coupled to the audio interfaces. The plurality of devices may include one or more headphones, an infotainment head unit, a microphone, and a speaker. Accordingly, headphone users may hold conversations with each other and/or other occupants of a vehicle, and various users may share audio content with headphone users and/or other occupants of a vehicle.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/917,027, titled “AUDIO HUB”, filed Jun. 30, 2020, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/141,018, titled“AUDIO HUB”, filed Sep. 25, 2018, which claims priority under 35 USC §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/563,166,titled “VEHICLE AUDIO DISTRIBUTION HUB,” filed Sep. 26, 2017, each ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties for allpurposes.

BACKGROUND

Various environments make it difficult for individuals to communicate orcarry on a conversation, due to noise, proximity, or other factors. Forexample, noise or distance between individuals may encumbercommunication in transportation centers, airplanes, trains, factoryfloors, etc. In some environments, an individual may be wearingheadphones, e.g., for noise cancellation and/or to consume various audiocontent, which may make it difficult to hear a second individual tryingto speak to him/her. For example, kids in the backseat of the family carmay be watching a movie on a tablet or listening to music from a mediadevice, and may be using headphones and may not hear a parent call outtheir name. Accordingly, there is a need for audio distributioncapability in various environments and scenarios.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods disclosed herein are directed to audio systems andmethods that distribute audio to accommodate communication and/orsharing of audio content among a number of users.

According to one aspect, an audio system is provided that includes anaudio input configured to receive an input signal from a microphone, theinput signal including audio content, a plurality of short-rangewireless audio interfaces, each of the short-range wireless audiointerfaces configured to couple wirelessly to an audio device and toprovide an output signal for rendering into an acoustic signal by theaudio device, and a controller coupled to the audio input and theplurality of wireless audio interfaces and configured to receive theinput signal and to selectively provide the audio content in the outputsignal to one or more of the plurality of short-range wireless audiointerfaces.

Some examples include an audio output configured to provide a secondoutput signal to a loudspeaker, the controller being further configuredto selectively receive a second input signal from a selected one of theplurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces and to provide thesecond output signal to the audio output based upon the second inputsignal.

According to various examples, the controller is further configured toselectively convey audio signals between a plurality of audio devices,each of the plurality of audio devices coupled to at least one of theplurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces. The controller maybe further configured to store a name associated with one or more of theplurality of audio devices and/or one or more of the plurality ofshort-range wireless audio interfaces, and to accept a user selection ofone or more of the names from a user interface, and to selectivelyconvey the audio signals between the plurality of audio devices basedupon the user selection. The user selection of one or more of the namesfrom the user interface may include at least one of voice recognition ofthe one or more names or selection of the one or more names via atouchscreen, in various examples.

In certain examples, one or more of the plurality of short-rangewireless audio interfaces is a Bluetooth interface. In certain examples,conveying an audio signal to and/or from one or more of the plurality ofshort-range wireless audio interfaces may use a hands-free profile(HFP). In certain examples, conveying an audio signal to and/or from oneor more of the plurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces mayuse an advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP).

Various examples include an infotainment unit of an automobile, themicrophone configured to be mounted in the automobile, the controllerbeing coupled to the infotainment unit, and the controller being furtherconfigured to selectively convey audio signals between a plurality ofdevices selected from a group comprising the microphone, any of theplurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces, and the infotainmentunit.

In certain examples, the controller is coupled to the plurality ofshort-range wireless audio interfaces via an audio bus.

In some examples, the audio input is a wireless audio interface and thecontroller is coupled to the microphone by the wireless audio interface.

According to another aspect, an audio system is provided that includesone or more audio interfaces, at least one of the one or more audiointerfaces configured to couple to one or more wireless audiointerfaces, and an audio hub coupled to the one or more audiointerfaces, the audio hub configured to detect a presence of one or moreheadphones via the one or more wireless audio interfaces and toestablish a communication channel between a plurality of devicesselected from a group comprising the one or more headphones, aninfotainment head unit, a microphone, and a speaker, and to convey audiocontent between the plurality of devices.

In certain examples, one or more of the audio interfaces is a Bluetoothinterface. In certain examples, conveying the audio content to and/orfrom one or more of the plurality of devices may use a hands-freeprofile (HFP). In certain examples, conveying the audio content toand/or from one or more of the plurality of devices may use an advancedaudio distribution profile (A2DP).

In certain examples, at least one of the one or more headphones may bein wireless communication with a personal device, wherein the pluralityof devices is selected from the group further comprising the personaldevice.

In some examples, the audio hub may be in further communication with aplurality of fixed speakers in a vehicle, wherein at least one of theone or more headphones is in wireless communication with a personaldevice, wherein the plurality of devices is selected from the groupfurther comprising the personal device and the plurality of fixedspeakers, and wherein conveying audio content further comprisestransmitting audio from the personal device to at least some of theplurality of fixed speakers.

In certain examples, conveying the audio content via the audio hubcomprises transmitting audio between the microphone and/or the speakerand one, some, or all of the one or more headphones.

According to some examples, conveying the audio content via the audiohub comprises transmitting first audio between the one or moreheadphones while second audio is transmitted between an infotainmenthead unit and the speaker, the first audio being different from thesecond audio.

In various examples, conveying the audio content via the audio hubcomprises transmitting first audio between the microphone, the speaker,and at least a first headphones of the one or more headphones; andtransmitting second audio between the one or more headphones other thanthe first headphones, the first audio being different from the secondaudio.

According to another aspect, a method for distributing audio thatincludes an audio hub, a wireless interface, a microphone configured topick up a user's voice, and a speaker located proximal to an ear of theuser, is provided. The method includes detecting a presence of one ormore headphones, via the wireless interface, establishing respectivebi-directional wireless communication channels between each of the oneor more headphones and the hub, and transmitting audio via the audio hubbetween a plurality of devices selected from a group comprising aninfotainment head unit, the microphone, the speaker, and the one or moreheadphones.

In certain examples, the wireless interface is a Bluetooth interface andestablishing respective bi-directional wireless communication channelsbetween one or more of the headphones and the hub uses one of ahands-free profile (HFP) or an advanced audio distribution profile(A2DP).

In some examples, at least one of the one or more headphones may be inwireless communication with a personal device, wherein the plurality ofdevices is selected from the group further comprising the personaldevice, and wherein transmitting audio via the audio hub furthercomprises transmitting audio from the personal device to at least one ofthe one or more headphones.

In some examples, at least one of the one or more headphones is inwireless communication with a personal device, wherein the plurality ofdevices is selected from the group further comprising the personaldevice, and wherein transmitting audio via the audio hub furthercomprises transmitting audio from the personal device to the speakers.

In certain examples, the audio hub may be in further communication witha plurality of fixed speakers in a vehicle, wherein at least one of theone or more headphones is in wireless communication with a personaldevice, wherein the plurality of devices is selected from the groupfurther comprising the personal device and the plurality of fixedspeakers, and wherein transmitting audio via the audio hub furthercomprises transmitting audio from the personal device to at least someof the plurality of fixed speakers.

In various examples, transmitting audio via the audio hub comprisestransmitting audio between the microphone and the speaker and one, some,or all of the one or more headphones.

In some examples, transmitting audio via the audio hub comprisestransmitting first audio between the one or more headphones while secondaudio is transmitted between an infotainment head unit and the speaker,the first audio being different from the second audio.

In some examples, transmitting audio via the audio hub comprisestransmitting first audio between the microphone, the speaker, and atleast a first headphones of the one or more headphones; and transmittingsecond audio between the one or more headphones other than the firstheadphones, the first audio being different from the second audio.

Still other aspects, examples, and advantages of these exemplary aspectsand examples are discussed in detail below. Examples disclosed hereinmay be combined with other examples in any manner consistent with atleast one of the principles disclosed herein, and references to “anexample,” “some examples,” “an alternate example,” “various examples,”“one example” or the like are not necessarily mutually exclusive and areintended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described may be included in at least one example. Theappearances of such terms herein are not necessarily all referring tothe same example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects of at least one example are discussed below withreference to the accompanying figures, which are not intended to bedrawn to scale. The figures are included to provide illustration and afurther understanding of the various aspects and examples, and areincorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, but are notintended as a definition of the limits of the invention. In the figures,identical or nearly identical components illustrated in various figuresmay be represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not everycomponent may be labeled in every figure. In the figures:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example audio hub;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an example use case of the audio hub ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a further example audio hub;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a further example audio hub;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a further example audio hub;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an example use case of the audio hub ofFIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a further example audio hub in variousexample use cases;

FIG. 8 is an overhead view of a further example use case of an audiohub;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a further example audio hub;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an example method of operation of an audiohub; and

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of an example computing system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to systems and methods ofestablishing audio distribution between various users, any of whom maybe using headphone or other audio reproduction devices and/or may be outof range (e.g., out of earshot) and/or under other conditions that mayotherwise make it difficult for the users to hear each other.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example audio hub 100 that includes an audio input110 to receive an audio signal, e.g., via a microphone 112, from a firstuser 114 and an audio output 120 to provide the audio signal (or avariation thereof), e.g., via a headphone 122 to a second user 124.

In some examples, the audio input 110 may be coupled to a microphone 112to receive acoustic signals from the first user 114, e.g., when the userspeaks, and to provide the audio signal to the audio input 110. Theaudio input 110 may be wired (as shown), and may include the microphone112, or may include one or more of various connectors or couplers,(e.g., RCA jack, ¼″ inline jack, ⅛″ inline jack, XLR jack, an audio busconnector, etc.), and may be mono, stereo, or otherwise. In someexamples, the audio input 110 may be, e.g., a short-range wirelessinterface, such as a Bluetooth interface. The audio input 110 may beconfigured to receive an audio signal in any of various forms, such aselectrical or optical, digital or analog, and in time domain orfrequency domain, as will be understood by one of skill in the art.

In some examples, the audio output 120 may be coupled to a headphone 122to provide an acoustic signal to the second user 124. The audio output120 may be wired and/or may include a wireless link 126 (as shown). Forexample, the audio output 120 may include a Bluetooth interface thatcouples with an accordant Bluetooth interface associated with theheadphone 122. In various examples, the audio output 120 may be coupledto a short-range wireless interface, such as a Bluetooth interface,having a range on the order of 200 feet or less. The audio output 120may be coupled to the wireless interface by a wired connection, whichmay include an audio bus. The audio output 120 may be configured toprovide an output audio signal in any of various forms, such aselectrical or optical, digital or analog, and in time domain orfrequency domain, as will be understood by one of skill in the art.

While the example shown illustrates a headphone 122, any of varioustypes and form factors of acoustic devices may be substituted. Forexample, the audio hub 100 may provide audio at an output 120 coupled toany of various audio device, such as on-ear or over-the-ear headphone,in-ear or around-the-ear headphone (e.g., earbud, hearing aid), openacoustic device (e.g., user worn, about the neck or shoulders),associated with other devices (e.g., glasses, headgear, etc.), or otherform factors, including portable speakers and the like, associated withthe second user 124. In some examples, an audio device associated withthe second user 124 may be binaural or monaural (e.g., a one-sidedheadset). In various examples, the audio device associated with thesecond user 124, e.g., the headphone 122, may include components thatprovide acoustic input, such as a microphone or other transducingequipment, e.g., intended to pick up vocal activity of the second user124.

In some examples in accord with systems and methods described herein, amulti-channel audio distribution hub may be implemented as amulti-channel Bluetooth device that includes a software suite forenabling multi-way conversations between users, such as occupants of ahome or office. In some examples, the multi-channel audio distributionhub may be coupled to various user devices, further audio hubs, and/orsound systems, and may be coupled to such components via variousinterfaces, such as Bluetooth, various audio bus types, a universalserial bus (USB) interface, or various networks, wired or wireless(e.g., wi-fi). Accordingly, various smart devices (e.g., smartphones,tablets, etc.) may be coupled to the audio hub via a local area network(LAN), such as a wireless LAN. In various examples, such smart devicesmay provide a user interface to the audio hub via an app, and/or mayprovide connectivity to a Bluetooth headphone or similar. Variousheadphones may, in turn, be connected to the audio hub and may includefurther Bluetooth connections to respective smartphones, tablets, etc.(user's personal devices). All the Bluetooth connections may be activeand bi-directional, enabling multiple paths between connected devices.In such a multi-channel Bluetooth architecture, connected devices mayserve both as clients and sources, and all connections can be activeconcurrently, as opposed to conventional Bluetooth systems thattypically have only one active Bluetooth channel at a time.

In some examples in accord with systems and methods described herein, amulti-channel audio distribution hub may be implemented as amulti-channel Bluetooth device that includes a software suite forenabling multi-way conversations between users, such as occupants of avehicle in some examples. In some examples, the multi-channel audiodistribution hub uses an automotive audio bus (A2B) or universal serialbus (USB) interface to connect to an amplifier, such as associated withan infotainment or head unit of an automobile, and may use dedicatedBluetooth active channels to connect to a driver's smartphone and toBluetooth headphones of various occupants of the vehicle. Each pair ofheadphones may, in turn, be connected via further Bluetooth connectionsto respective smartphones, tablets, etc. (user's personal devices). Allthe Bluetooth connections may be active and bi-directional, enablingmultiple paths between connected devices. In such a multi-channelBluetooth architecture, connected devices may serve both as clients andsources, and all connections can be active concurrently, as opposed toconventional Bluetooth systems that typically have only one activeBluetooth channel at a time.

A software suite of multi-channel audio distribution hub(s) describedherein may enable audio streams (e.g., satellite or terrestrial) to bedirected from an infotainment head unit or other audio source to anycombination of headphones coupled to the audio distribution hub, andvice versa. Accordingly, users of the headphones may listen to the sameaudio content that is being presented to a driver in a vehicle, forexample. The audio distribution hub may also enable an audio stream tobe directed from an application running on any coupled device, such as asmartphone, or an audio stream being processed through any of thecoupled headphones, to other outputs, such as to the infotainment unitfor distribution to vehicle speakers. In this manner, personal audiostreams may be shared between vehicle occupants freely andinterchangeably between all sources and clients. Accordingly, such anaudio distribution hub may provide an integrated experience thatimproves vehicle hospitality by enabling occupants to listen to theirown or shared content; providing the connectivity to enable seamlesscommunication with other vehicle occupants when they want, and privacywhen they don't, without removing or donning their headphones to makesuch a transition.

In one example scenario, an infotainment head unit may have atouchscreen display, and a software suite of the audio distribution hubmay provide, on the touchscreen display, a graphical user interfacethrough which a driver of the vehicle can selectively identify occupantsof the vehicle to have a conversation with. The driver may selectivelystart a conversation with one, some, or all of the vehicle occupants. Atany point during the conversation, the driver may add or dropparticipants to the conversation. Each vehicle occupant who is a partyto the conversation with the driver may communicate with the driver viaa microphone and speaker of their respective headphones. The driver'svoice may be picked up by a vehicle microphone and transmitted toselected headphones within the vehicle cabin, via the audio distributionhub. In some cases, the driver may hear the other users through one ormore speakers associated with the vehicle, such as in the driver's seatheadrest.

In another example scenario, an audio distribution hub is a virtualpersonal assistant (VPA)-enabled device configured to enable a user,e.g., the driver, to selectively start a conversation with one, some, orall of the other users, e.g., the vehicle occupants, by providingappropriate voice commands. In such a scenario, each pair of headphonescoupled to the audio distribution hub may be uniquely identified by aspoken word.

In yet another example scenario, a user's smartphone may run acommunications application through which the user can selectively starta conversation with one, some, or all of the other users.

In one example operating environment and mode of operation, and asillustrated in FIG. 2, the second user 124 may be an occupant orpassenger in a vehicle, such as an automobile, and may be wearingheadphones 122 having a Bluetooth connection to the audio hub 100. Themicrophone 112 may be positioned in the vehicle to pick up the voice ofthe first user 114. For example, the first user 114 may be a driver ofthe vehicle and the microphone 112 may be positioned as shown to atleast pick up acoustic signals from the first user 114. Accordingly, thefirst user 114 may speak to the second user 124 via the audio hub 100,e.g., picked up by the microphone 112 and conveyed by the audio hub 100via the wireless link 126 to the headphones 122. In this example, thefirst user 114, e.g., the driver, may be able to hear the second user124 by regular acoustics, e.g., the driver can hear the passenger speakbecause the driver's ears are not blocked or otherwise encumbered.Accordingly, in this example, the audio hub 100 may provide an audiocommunications channel from a driver to a passenger, even though thepassenger may be wearing headphones and may be out of eyesight of thedriver. A return communications channel, from the passenger to thedriver, may involve ordinary acoustics without assistance from the audiohub 100.

With reference to FIG. 3, the headphone 122 may be further coupled to anadditional device 302, such as a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or thelike, that may be associated with the second user 124. For example, thedevice 302 may include a wireless interface, such as a Bluetoothinterface, and the headphone 122 may be capable of simultaneousdual-connectivity, e.g., coupled to the audio hub 100 via the wirelesslink 126 and also coupled to the device 302 via a second wireless link306. In various examples, either (or both) of the wireless links 126,306, may be replaced with wired links.

With continued reference to FIG. 3, the second user 124 may use theheadphone 122 to listen to audio content from the device 302, such asvia a Bluetooth advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP), or similar,over the wireless link 306. The headphone 122 may also be coupled viathe wireless link 126 to the audio hub 100, and the wireless link 126may accommodate a Bluetooth hands-free profile (HFP) or similar, alongwith other profiles. When the first user 114 wants to communicate withthe second user 124, in some examples, the first user 114 may indicatesuch by making a selection, e.g., via a user interface associated withthe audio hub 100, and the audio hub 100 may initiate an HFP sessionwith the headphone 122. Accordingly, in some examples, the audio hub 100may appear to the headphone 122 to be a telephonic device, andinitiating an HFP session may be equivalent to receiving an incomingcall to which the headphone 122 may respond by answering, which mayinvolve a prompt to and/or acceptance by the second user 124. Theheadphone 122 may therefore be a Bluetooth compliant device withoutrequiring any special component or programming to be “aware” of thefunction(s) of the audio hub 100. In the instance that the headphone 122is rendering an audio stream from the other device 302, the headphone122 may pause such stream to accept the “call” from the audio hub 100,or may be configured to operate in various other ways.

In various examples, an audio hub may provide for communications betweenany of multiple users that may be coupled to the audio hub by wirelessmeans, such as Bluetooth, wi-fi, or the like. For example, each ofmultiple passenger seats of a vehicle, such as an automobile, plane,train, etc. may have an occupant using a wireless (e.g., Bluetooth)audio device, such as headphones or their equivalent, and an exampleaudio hub may allow any of the occupants to communicate to one or moreother of the occupants, via their respective audio device, via theirrespective wireless link, and via the audio hub.

For example, FIG. 4 illustrates an example audio hub 400 having aninterface 410 coupled to one or more wireless interfaces 412. Each ofthe wireless interfaces 412 may be coupled to a wireless audio device,such as a headphone 122, associated with a user. In some instances, anyof the user's audio devices may be further coupled to a further device302, such as when any of the users may be listening to audio contentfrom their respective device 302.

In some examples, each of the wireless interfaces 412 may be coupleddirectly to the audio hub 400 and/or may be incorporated with or intothe audio hub 400, or may include one or more wireless interfaces 412coupled to the audio hub 400 in combination with one or more wirelessinterfaces 412 incorporated in the audio hub 400. In various examples,an audio bus 420, such as an automotive audio bus (A2B) or similar, maycouple one or more wireless interfaces 412 to the audio hub 400 and/oran audio bus may be incorporated into the audio hub 400. As shown in theexample of FIG. 4, the audio hub 400 includes an interface 410configured to couple to an audio bus 420. In various examples, the audiohub 400 may communicate with and/or control the wireless interfaces 412via such an audio bus 420 or via additional or alternate communicationschannels with the wireless interfaces 412.

Accordingly, audio content may be conveyed to or from the audio hub 400via the audio bus 420, and the audio hub 400 may distribute such audiocontent among various users. For example, various of the headphones 122may be in use by a respective user, e.g., for noise cancellation,listening to audio content (music, movie, training video, etc.) from arespective device 302, or the like. A user associated with the headphone122 a may wish to communicate with a user associated with the headphone122 b, at some instance, and the audio hub 400 may accommodate a userselection (e.g., by the user of headphone 122 a) to “call” the otheruser. Accordingly, the audio hub 400 may initiate two-way audiocommunication with the headphone 122 b, which may include an acceptanceof the call by the user of the headphone 122 b, and may convey two-wayaudio communication between the user of headphone 122 a and the user ofheadphone 122 b.

In various examples, user action or input to initiate an audiocommunication link may take any of various forms. For instance, userinput may be accommodated by the audio hub 400 by selection of optionsvia a user interface, which may include a display, buttons, atouchscreen, keyboard, mouse, and the like. Additionally or alternately,the audio hub 400 may incorporate or be coupled to components thatperform voice recognition and/or speech-to-text decoding and mayaccommodate spoken commands. In some examples, various sensors (e.g.,optical, video, accelerometers, positioning sensors, etc.) may detectmovement of a user device (e.g., an audio device such as a headphone122) and the audio hub 400, with the benefit of input signals from suchsensors, may accommodate user movements as a selection to initiate acommunication link. For instance, the user of the headphone 122 b mayturn and look at the user of the headphone 122 a and the audio hub 400may detect the motion and resulting spatial relationship between theheadphones 122 a, 122 b and interpret such as a user selection toinitiate a communication link between the headphones 122 a, 122 b. Invarious examples, any combination of user interfaces and user modes ofselection as described above, or others, may be included.

With continued reference to the above example, the two users may be neareach other or may be more remote, e.g., each within range of theirrespective wireless interface 412, and each wireless interface 412 maybe a distance from each other as accommodated by the audio bus 420.Accordingly, the users may be next to each other in an automobile, ormay be quite distant from each other, such as in different sections of aplane, train, spacecraft, office space, building, campus, etc.

In further examples, the audio hub 400 may accommodate conferencingcommunications, e.g., involving two-way communications between three ormore users at once, and may accommodate multiple user conversations atonce, e.g., user A communicating with user B while separately butsimultaneously users C, D, and E communicate with each other in aconference configuration. Accordingly, any variation of types ofcommunication links, communication zones, and/or quantity ofcommunication links or zones may be supported to accommodate varyingsystem requirements.

In various examples and/or various instances, one or more users may notbe associated with a wireless audio device, such as a headphone 122. Forexample, the driver of a car may be unencumbered with a personal audiodevice. Accordingly, in various examples, an audio hub in accord withsystems and methods described herein may include or accommodateadditional audio devices, such as the microphone 112 coupled to theaudio hub 100 of FIG. 1 and/or a loudspeaker to accommodate one or moreusers that are not associated with a personal audio device capable ofreceiving and/or providing audio signals from or to the user.

For example, and with reference to FIG. 5, the audio hub 400 is shownwith an additional audio interface 430 coupled to a microphone 432 and aloudspeaker (e.g., an acoustic driver) 434 to accommodate bi-directionalaudio communication with a user 436. In various examples, theloudspeaker 434 may include numerous loudspeakers, and/or the microphone432 may include numerous microphones, e.g., that may be furtherprocessed as a microphone array. The loudspeaker 434 and the microphone432 provide and receive, respectively, acoustic signals to or from theuser 436. Accordingly, the user 436 may initiate a communication withone or more of any other users, e.g., associated with any of the coupledaudio devices, such as the headphones 122, or vice versa. In variousexamples, the microphone 432 and the loudspeaker 434 may be associatedwith a passenger position of a vehicle, e.g., where the user 436 may beexpected to be, such as various positions in a car. In some examples,audio content may be distributed by the audio hub 400 to variousloudspeaker(s), similar to the loudspeaker 434, to the environmentgenerally (without regard to an expected position of a user), such asthe sound system of an automobile.

FIG. 6 illustrates such a scenario in which the user 436 does not use apersonal audio device, and is an automotive example wherein the driveris the user 436 who communicates with other users via an audio interface430 of the audio hub 400. This example is similar to that of FIG. 2,except that the user 436 may receive audio via the loudspeaker 434rather than (or in addition to) directly from the other user, e.g.,rather than by virtue of being within earshot of the other user. Invarious examples, such a microphone 432 may be mounted in, attached, orotherwise coupled to a dashboard or other component of the vehicle, andsuch a loudspeaker 434 may be mounted in, attached, or otherwise coupledto a headrest, seat, or other component of the vehicle, e.g., near thedriver, e.g., the user 436.

In another example, the user 436, e.g., the driver, may communicate witha second user 124 by, e.g., selecting a respective option from a userinterface associated with the audio hub 400. Under such operation, theaudio hub 400 may convey audio signals from the microphone 432 to thewireless radio 412 that is wirelessly coupled to the headphones 122, sothat the second user 124 may hear what the driver says when he speaks.When the second user 124 speaks, the headphones 122 (e.g., a Bluetoothheadset) may pick up the user speech via a microphone associated withthe headphones 122 and transmit an audio signal to the wireless radio412, which the audio hub 400 conveys to the loudspeaker 434. Forinstance, such an example may be particularly beneficial when thevehicle cabin is particularly noisy (e.g., a convertible with the topdown, other audio playing through various speakers, or other passengersgenerating significant noise), or when the second user 124 is furtheraway from the user 436 than is illustrated by FIG. 6 (e.g., the seconduser 124 being in a third row, or further back in the vehicle, or alarger vehicle such as a bus, RV, semi-truck, etc., or the like).

In some examples, various modes of operation of an audio hub mayaccommodate the second user 124 initiating the conversation via a userinterface associated with the audio hub 400. Such a user interface mayalso be associated with other devices, such as an app on a smartphone,that provide a graphical user interface, and may be coupled to the audiohub via a wired or wireless link.

In various examples, various modes of operation of an audio hub mayaccommodate sharing audio content from various devices or varioussources, e.g., conveying audio content to other users via the audio hub400. For instance, and with continued reference to FIG. 6, the seconduser 124 may have a device 302, such as a personal device like asmartphone, media player, tablet, or the like, from which the seconduser 124 may be listening to audio content. The device 302 may becoupled to the headphone 122 via a wired or wireless link. In variousexamples, any of the user 436, the second user 302, or another user, mayinitiate content sharing, e.g., via a user interface associated with theaudio hub 400, which may in some examples include an app on the device302. In response to such a user selection, various procedures may beimplemented in various examples to provide the audio content (from thedevice 302) to the audio bus 400.

In some examples, the headphone 122 may receive the audio content viaexisting link (such as Bluetooth wireless, wired, etc.) with the device302 and may forward or otherwise share or send the audio content to theaudio hub 400 via the wireless interface 412 to which the headphone 122is coupled. In other examples, the second user 124 may be prompted tomanage the device 302 to establish a link (such as a wireless link) tothe audio hub 400 and to provide the audio content. In other examples, auser may have previously established a wireless link between the device302 and the audio hub 400, and the audio hub 400 may communicate withthe device 302 to command or control the device 302 to share the audiocontent with the audio hub 400. Accordingly, the audio hub 400 mayremember prior connections and prioritize them based upon previoushistory, e.g., most recently used, etc., in various examples. In someexamples, an app on the device 302 may provide command and control ofthe audio hub 400, and user selection of an option to share audiocontent on such an app (on the device 302) may natively include sharingthe audio content from the devise 302 to the audio hub 400, e.g., viathe app and/or from another app that may be the source of the audiocontent on the device 302. Accordingly, audio content from the device302 may be provided to the audio hub 400 in numerous ways, and those ofskill in the art, with the benefit of this disclosure, will understandthese and other methods.

In such a sharing scenario, the second user 124 may continue to receiveand listen to the audio content via the headphones 122. In someexamples, the shared audio content may be provided by the device 302simultaneously to each of the headphones 122 and the audio hub 400. Insome examples, the shared audio content may be provided by the device302 to the headphones 122 and the headphones 122 may provide the audiocontent to the audio hub 400. In some examples, the shared audio contentmay be provided by the device 302 to the audio hub 400, and the audiohub 400 may provide the shared audio content to the headphones 122.

In various examples, shared audio content may be provided by the audiohub 400 to various users. Accordingly, the audio hub 400 may provide theaudio content to the loudspeaker 434 for the user 436 to hear.Additionally, the audio hub 400 may provide the audio content to afurther sound system, such as a vehicular infotainment head unit,integrated sound system, amplifier system, equalization systems, etc.,for distribution to additional loudspeakers. In some examples, theloudspeaker 434 may be driven by such a further sound system.Additionally, the audio hub 400 may provide the audio content to furtheraudio devices coupled to the audio hub 400, e.g., via wireless links,such as the various headphones 122 (of FIG. 5) associated with variousother users. As above, such wireless links may be Bluetooth wirelesslinks, for example.

In some examples, the audio hub 400 may include delay components to beapplied to audio that is distributed by the audio hub 400. For example,in some instances, the audio hub 400 may provide audio content to audiodevices coupled by wireless links while simultaneously providing theaudio content to various loudspeakers and/or other sound systems. Suchwireless links may induce processing delays (e.g., audio compression,transmission, reception, synthesis, etc.) that could cause acousticrendering by the wireless audio devices to be out of sync with thatproduced by loudspeakers and/or other sound systems. Accordingly, theaudio hub 400 may induce additional delay to audio signals provided tovarious outputs, e.g., loudspeakers and other sound systems, at leastwhen the audio signal is also provided to outputs that may includeprocessing lag, such as a Bluetooth wireless link. Such additional delaymay be selected, monitored, and/or controlled to achieve synchronizedaudio rendering by the various devices.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of at least one audio system 800 in whichan audio hub in accord with systems and methods described herein may beused or incorporated with a further sound system. In the example shownin FIG. 7, the audio hub 400 is used with an infotainment system 810,such as in an automobile, but may be used with or incorporated in to anysuitable sound system, including home sound systems, portable soundsystems, professional sound systems, public address (PA) systems, etc.,and in some examples may be used with or incorporated in to soundsystems associated with various vehicles and modes of transportation,such as automobiles, trains, planes, spacecraft, and the like. Invarious examples, the audio hub 400 may be used with a sound system,e.g., infotainment system 810, or may be incorporated with such a soundsystem, e.g., a unified version of the audio system 800 that includesthe audio hub 400 with various additional sound system components.

In the example audio system 800, the infotainment system 810 may includespeaker outputs 820 and may include various components such asequalizer(s) (EQ) 822, digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 824,amplifier(s) 826, and the like, as are known in the art for providingoutput signals to speakers. The infotainment system 810 may also includea head unit 830 that generally houses various components and may includeand/or be coupled to a user interface 832, which may include a display,touchscreen, buttons, knobs, and the like, and which may include varioussoftware components for interaction with the user. The infotainmentsystem 810 may also include and/or be coupled to various audio sources,such as navigation (NAV) 842, radio(s) 844, and wireless interface(s)846 (e.g., Bluetooth radio to which a user's smartphone may be coupled),storage media, interfaces for removable storage media, and the like.

The audio hub 400 may be coupled to or incorporated with theinfotainment system 810 in various ways. As shown in FIG. 7, the audiohub 400 includes an interface 410 that couples to an audio bus 420, asdescribed above, that further couples to one or more wireless interfaces412. The audio hub 400 also includes an audio interface 430 a coupled tothe microphone 432 and the loudspeaker 434, as described above, thatprovide and receive acoustic signals to or from the user 436. The audiohub 400 also includes an audio interface 430 b coupled to theinfotainment system 810. Accordingly, the audio hub 400 may beconfigured to treat the infotainment system 810 as an additional “user”to or from which audio may be distributed and sourced. In variousexamples, the audio hub 400 may appear to the infotainment system 810 asan additional sound source or sink, e.g., configured to receive audiocontent from the audio hub 400 and/or provide audio content to the audiohub 400, similar in manner to, e.g., a user's cell phone that may besynced to the infotainment system 810. In some examples, the wirelessinterface(s) 846 associated with the infotainment system 810 may be oneor more of the wireless interfaces 412 coupled to the audio bus 420.

It should be understood that audio provided to and/or received from theaudio hub 400 may be of various quality and/or characteristics, such asmonaural, binaural, multi-channel (e.g., surround), analog or digital,with varying degrees of fidelity, compression, dynamic range, bit-depth,frequency range, sampling rate(s), etc., as may be suitable for variousapplications and/or changing system requirements.

The configuration of the audio system 800 as shown in FIG. 7 is merelyone example of such a system in accord with systems and methodsdescribed herein. In various examples, for instance, the loudspeaker 434may include one or more speakers driven by the speaker outputs 820 ofthe infotainment system 810 and/or the microphone 432 may be one or moremicrophones coupled to the infotainment system 810, e.g., as anadditional audio source, and may include an array of microphones.Accordingly, the audio interface 430 a that provides or receives signalsto or from the user 436 may be integrated with the audio interface 430b, such that signals to or from the user 436 may be further conveyed bythe infotainment system 810.

In various examples, the audio interface 430 b may be any type ofinterface supported by the infotainment unit capable of conveying audiocontent, such as a Bluetooth interface, a universal serial bus (USB)interface, or similar.

Additionally, the audio interface 430 b may be an audio bus.Accordingly, the audio interface 430 b may be incorporated into theaudio bus 420. Thus, in some examples, the audio hub 400 may include asingle interface 410 that couples to the audio bus 420 and may therebybe coupled to the infotainment system 810, and/or may further be coupledto the microphone 432 and the loudspeaker 434 via the audio bus 420.

According to various examples, the audio hub 400 includes a controller450, which may include a processor generally and/or may include adigital signal processor (DSP). The controller 450 may be configured toinclude, or to control, a delay 452 that may be controlled to induce adelay in audio signals provided for various output modalities that havelow latency so that rendering of audio content may be synchronized withother output modalities that may have higher latency (e.g., wirelesslinks).

In certain examples, the audio hub 400 may be integrated with theinfotainment system 810. In such examples, the functions of thecontroller 450 (and the delay 452) may be integrated with and/orincorporated in the functions of the DSP 824 or other processor(s)associated with the infotainment system 810. In other examples, theaudio hub 400 may be a stand-alone device and/or may be a portabledevice that may be coupled to the infotainment system 810 and/or mayoperate in parallel with but separate from the infotainment system 810.

In some examples, the audio hub 400 may be implemented as specializedprocessor instructions and configuration parameters loadable to aprocessor associated with the infotainment system 810, such as loadableto the DSP 824 or another processor, or any combination of one or moreDSP's and/or one or more other processors. Such specialized processorinstructions (which may include DSP instructions and/or configurationparameters) may be stored on a storage media or memory, and whenexecuted may cause the infotainment system 810 to perform the operationsof an audio hub 400 as described herein, such as distributing audiobetween various wired and wireless audio devices (e.g., headphones 122,audio interface(s) 430, etc.), as may be selected by a user through auser interface (e.g., user interface 832 and/or a remote app or thelike). Accordingly, the infotainment system 810 may communicate over anaudio bus (e.g., the audio bus 420) to control and distribute audiosignals among various wireless interface(s) 412 and/or variousmicrophones and loudspeakers, and in some examples the infotainmentsystem 810 may distribute audio to wireless audio devices, such asheadphones 122, using a hands-free profile, advanced audio distributionprofile, or the like.

With continued reference to FIG. 7, some example scenarios of use and/ormodes of operation are described. For example, the user 436 may receiveor provide acoustic signals via the loudspeaker 434 and the microphone432, and may communicate with and/or share audio content with additionaluser devices, such as a first audio device 852 (e.g., headphones), asmart device 854 (e.g., smartphone), and a second audio device 856(e.g., headphones), and/or the sound system provided via theinfotainment system 810, e.g., vehicle loudspeakers coupled to thespeaker outputs 820. For the sake of these examples, the first audiodevice 852 may be worn by a first user named Dave and the smart device854 may be Dave's smartphone. The second audio device 856 may be worn bya second user named Tim.

In various examples, the audio hub 400 may include configuration optionsto assign an identifier (e.g., a name, a “tag,” etc.) to the variousdevices. For instance, the first audio device 852 may be tagged as“Dave” and the second audio device 856 may be tagged as “Tim.”Accordingly, the user 436 may use custom identifiers to be associatedwith the first and second audio devices 852, 856, or other devices(e.g., smart device 854), which may be spoken out loud in some examples.Accordingly, the user 436 may select an option (e.g., via a userinterface) to speak with Dave or Tim, and may identify which of Dave orTim he wants to speak. Selecting an option to speak with another usermay, in various examples, involve making a selection on a touchscreen,for instance, and may involve selecting “Dave” or “Tim” from amongoptions presented on the touchscreen. In some examples, a toggle orbutton on a console, steering wheel, or other convenient location mayindicate the user's desire to make an audio connection with anotheruser. In some examples, various aspects of selecting to speak withanother user may involve voice recognition functions, e.g., such thatthe user 436 may speak the name “Dave” or “Tim” after having selectedthe option to speak with another user. In some examples, voicerecognition functions may include a command or wake-up word. Forexample, a wake-up word may be “hey” and the audio hub 400 may beconfigured to interpret the wake-up word as a command to initiate aconversation with another user. Accordingly, the user 436 could speak,“Hey, Dave” and in response the audio hub 400 may initiate aconversation between the user 436 and the first audio device 852. Insome examples, the audio hub 400 may initiate the conversation bysignaling to the first audio device 852 that there is an incoming call,e.g., in accord with a hands-free profile, and in response to which thefirst audio device 852 (optionally upon prompting and/or acceptance byDave) may pause any other audio (e.g., Dave may be actively listening toaudio content from the smart device 854) and may “accept” the incomingcall, thereby establishing an active audio link with the audio hub 400,via a respective wireless interface 412. Accordingly, an audiocommunication link 862 may be established between Dave and the user 436.

In another example, Dave may be listening to audio content, e.g., viathe first audio device 852, from the smart device 854 and may want toshare the audio content with other users, such as Tim or the user 436 orall the passengers in the vehicle (e.g., through loudspeakers coupled tothe speaker outputs 820). In some examples, Dave may make selections onthe smart device 854, such as via an app, to cause the smart device 854to couple with the audio hub 400 (e.g., to establish a wireless linkwith a respective wireless interface 412) and in response to which theaudio hub 400 may initiate active audio distribution from the smartdevice 854 to the various selected audio outputs. Accordingly, audiocontent may be distributed via an audio link 864. In various examples,the first audio device 852 may continue to play the audio content byvirtue of the audio hub 400 distributing the audio content back to thefirst audio device 852, e.g., without regard to the fact that the smartdevice 854 and the first audio device 852 are both associated with Dave.In other examples, the smart device 854 may be capable of sending theaudio content to each of the first audio device 852 and the audio hub400 simultaneously. In other examples, the smart device 854 may not becoupled to a wireless interface 412 but, e.g., the first audio device852 may forward the audio content received from the smart device 854 tothe audio hub 400.

In further examples, conferencing conversations may be initiated, withaudio distributed accordingly via the audio hub 400, in like manner. Forexample, an audio communication link 866 may be established thatincludes the user 436 and both Dave and Tim, but may not include otherusers in the vehicle (not shown). For example, an existing audiocommunication link 862 may be converted into the audio communicationlink 866 by additionally selecting “Tim” by voice command, or bytouchscreen selection (e.g., one-touch), or other forms of userinteraction with the audio hub 400.

Additionally, audio content “sharing” may be in various forms. Forinstance, the radio 844 may be an audio source selected to bedistributed to the first audio device 852, such that Dave can listen toradio program content, for example while the radio volume for thespeaker outputs 820 may be turned down and/or while the user 436 isholding a phone conversation via the wireless interface 846 through thespeaker outputs 820. As another example, the radio 844 may be an audiosource for Dave, exclusive of navigation prompts of the navigation 842system, while the same radio program may play through the speakeroutputs 820 (or through the loudspeaker 434) inclusive of navigationprompts. In yet another example, the radio 844 may be an audio sourcefor Dave for a particular radio program (e.g., a radio station) whileother users and/or the speaker outputs 820 play an alternate radioprogram (e.g., a different radio station).

In various examples, the audio hub 400, by itself or coupled to orintegrated with a further sound system such as the infotainment system810, may be used in various ways and for various applications. Forexample, Dave and Tim of FIG. 7 may use a communication link betweentheir respective headphones 852, 856 for side-by-side gaming, e.g., tocommunicate with each other while participating in a virtual gamesystem, for instance. In other examples, user's may participate in akaraoke session, such as by playing their singing voices through vehicleloudspeakers, or to have a limited karaoke session to play their singingvoices only in their respective headphones (e.g., among theparticipants, not all individuals). In some examples, members of ahousehold may hold discussions with each other from different rooms,without having to gather in the same location or shout through thehouse, and without having to disturb or include other members of thehousehold, who may be doing other things. Similarly, co-workers maycommunicate remotely via respective audio devices and via an audio hubin accord with those described herein, e.g., from their respectivecubicles or offices, and potentially at distances from each other on afloor of a building, or on different floors, or between buildings in acampus, such as via multiple audio hubs that may be linked by additionalinterfaces for extended range.

Accordingly, the audio hub 400 enables various audio source anddestination combinations and options among various users, whether eachuser has a personal audio device or is simply present in the acousticenvironment of the audio system 800.

In some examples, the audio hub 400 may communicate with other devicesand/or sound systems via a cloud or other network interface. The audiohub 400 may also accommodate transition of wireless links to variousaudio devices (e.g., headphones 122) as they enter or exit range of theaudio hub 400 and/or as they enter or exit range of other devices. Forexample, a family member may have a headphone 122 may be paired with asound bar at home and with the audio hub 400 in a vehicle, and either ofthe sound bar or the audio hub 400 may monitor for the presence of theheadphone 122 and may cause a seamless transition from the audio hub 400to the sound bar, or vice versa, such as when the user arrives home inthe car. Various examples may include polling for the headphone 122, ormay include Bluetooth low energy (BLE) pulsing, and/or may includecommunication (e.g., via the cloud) between the audio hub 400 and thesound bar or other device to which a transition may be desirable basedon user activity.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example acoustic environment in which variouscomponents of the audio system 800 may operate. The example environmentis an automobile having a driver's seat and a number of passengerpositions. The loudspeaker 434 and the microphone 432 are positioned toacoustically provide or capture, respectively, audio to and from thedriver, e.g., the user 436. The audio hub 400 may be coupled to orincorporated into an infotainment system 810, or a head unit thereof, anumber of wireless interfaces 412 may be positioned in the vehicle toprovide wireless connectivity with audio devices located at variouspassenger positions. In various examples, each of the wirelessinterfaces 412 may be coupled to an audio bus 420, such as an automotiveaudio bus (A2B) as discussed above. In some examples, one or more of thewireless interfaces 412 may be directly coupled or wired to the audiohub 400 (or an infotainment system) and not be coupled via an audio bus,and/or various of the wireless interfaces 412 may be integrated with theaudio hub 400 (or the infotainment system).

In various examples, an audio hub in accord with the systems and methodsdescribed herein may take various form factors. For instance, a portableaudio hub may include two or more wireless interfaces, such as Bluetoothradios, and may provide selective communication links between varioususers (e.g., between user's audio devices, such as headphones). In someexamples, an audio hub may include one or more audio interfaces forcoupling to various microphones and/or loudspeakers.

In some examples, the audio hub may include such microphone(s) orloudspeaker(s). In some examples, the audio hub may be incorporated intoa personal audio device, such as a headphone, tabletop speaker, portablespeaker, home sound system, or the like. For example, a headset mayinclude such an audio hub, e.g., the headphone speaker(s) andmicrophone(s) being equivalent to the loudspeaker 434 and the microphone432, for instance, and to which other user's audio devices may couple,e.g., via wireless links. In various examples, an audio hub in accordwith systems and methods described herein may have extended ranges suchthat, for example, various users may be coupled to the audio hub (e.g.,via wireless links) while distributed across a larger area. Exampleenvironments and use scenarios may include planes and trains (usersseated at various locations), tour groups (users roaming along a streetor around an exhibit), office spaces (users in various cubicles,conference rooms, floors, buildings, etc.), security (personnel roamingaround rooms and buildings), industrial environments (manufacturing,noisy machinery), restaurants (wait-staff, fast food communication,drive-through ordering, etc.), and others.

In some examples, numerous audio hubs may be configured to be coupled toeach other via wired or wireless means, e.g., to extend the reach of anaudio distribution. In some examples, an audio hub may include amicrophone and a wireless interface and may be usable to enhance thehearing of the user. For instance, the audio hub may pick-up audio viathe microphone and provide it to a user's headphone, e.g., coupled by awireless link, so that the user may hear the audio better, e.g., louderor at a distance such as from the front to the back of a classroom. Forexample, the audio hub may act as a remote microphone for listening on awireless headset.

FIG. 9 illustrates further example aspects that may be included with theaudio hub 400. FIG. 9 in particular illustrates that the audio hub 400may have one or more included wireless interfaces 440, in addition to orinstead of the interface 410 to which an audio bus 420 may couple to thewireless interface(s) 412. Accordingly, the controller 450 may includevarious connections or couplings to the wireless interfaces 440 that mayor may not be coupled to the interface 410 and/or the audio bus 420, invarious examples. FIG. 9 also illustrates that the audio hub 400 mayhave multiple audio interfaces 430 that may couple to variousmicrophones and loudspeakers, e.g., for various acoustic locations,and/or may couple to various external sound systems.

In various examples, a user interface (for interaction with thecontroller 450, see FIG. 9) may include remote portions. With referenceto FIG. 7, the smart device 854 may include a software applicationproviding a user interface that provides some or all of thefunctionality of the user interface 832, and may be provided in additionto or instead of the user interface 832. A user interface may allow forcommunication of user controls, commands, and/or adjustments to audiosettings.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example method 1000 for distributing audio, e.g.,in a vehicle, that includes an audio hub in accord with examplesdescribed here. As described above, the audio hub may be in electroniccommunication with an infotainment head unit, a vehicle microphone,and/or speakers located proximal to an intended seating position of adriver of the vehicle. The audio hub may detect (block 1010) a presenceof one or more headphones, e.g., within a cabin of the vehicle. Forexample, detection may be by virtue of prior pairing and/or may involveBluetooth low energy (BLE), for example. Conventional techniques fordetecting presence of headphones previously-paired with the hub and/orfor pairing with new headphones can be used. The audio hub establishesrespective bi-directional wireless communication channels (block 1020)between each of the one or more headphones and the audio hub.Additionally, the audio hub transmits audio between devices (block 1030)selected from a group comprising the infotainment head unit, the vehiclemicrophone, the driver speakers, and the one or more headphones.

Embodiments of the systems and methods described above may includecomputer components and computer-implemented steps that will be apparentto those skilled in the art. For example, it should be understood by oneof skill in the art that computer-implemented steps may be stored ascomputer-executable instructions on a computer-readable medium such as,for example, floppy disks, hard disks, optical disks, Flash ROMS,nonvolatile ROM, and RAM. Furthermore, it should be understood by one ofskill in the art that computer-executable instructions may be executedon a variety of processors such as, for example, microprocessors,digital signal processors, gate arrays, etc. For ease of exposition, notevery step or element of the systems and methods described above isdescribed herein as part of a computer system, but those skilled in theart will recognize that each step or element may have a correspondingcomputer system or software component. Such computer system and/orsoftware components are therefore enabled by describing theircorresponding steps or elements (that is, their functionality), and arewithin the scope of the disclosure.

Any of various functions described, including those of the examplemethod 1000 or similar, and any components of an audio device, such asthe audio hub 400, and its controller, e.g., the controller 450, orsimilar, may be implemented or carried out with use of a microprocessor,a logic controller, logic circuits, a digital signal processor (DSP), orthe like, or any combination of these, and may include analog circuitcomponents, digital circuit components, and/or other components withrespect to any particular implementation. Any suitable hardware and/orsoftware, including firmware and the like, may be configured to carryout or implement components of the aspects and examples disclosedherein, and various implementations of aspects and examples may includecomponents and/or functionality in addition to those disclosed.Additionally, statements herein that an audio device does or takes anaction may be understood to mean that a controller of the audio devicemay do or take the action.

Referring to FIG. 11, there is illustrated a block diagram of acomputing system 1100, in which various aspects and functions may bepracticed. As illustrated in FIG. 11, at least one computing system 1100includes a processor 1110, a memory 1120, an interconnection element1130, an interface 1140 and a data storage element 1150. To implement atleast some of the aspects, functions, and processes disclosed herein,the processor 1110 performs a series of instructions that result inmanipulated data. The processor 1110 may be any type of processor,multiprocessor, controller, field programmable gate array (FPGA),application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or digital signalprocessor (DSP). The processor 1110 is connected to other systemcomponents, including one or more memory 1120 devices, by theinterconnection element 1130.

The memory 1120 may store one or more programs (e.g., sequences ofinstructions coded to be executable by the processor 1110) and/or data,which may include device identifiers and bonded keys, for example,during operation of the computing system 1100. Thus, the memory 1120 maybe a relatively high performance, volatile, random access memory 1120such as a dynamic random access memory 1120 (“DRAM”) or static memory1120 (“SRAM”). However, the memory 1120 may include any device forstoring data, such as a disk drive or other nonvolatile storage device.

Components of the computing system 1100 are coupled by aninterconnection element 1130. The interconnection element 1130 mayinclude any communication coupling between system components such as oneor more physical busses in conformance with specialized or standardcomputing bus technologies or interfaces, and may include differingtechnologies to couple to different components. The interconnectionelement 1130 enables communications, including instructions and data, tobe exchanged between system components of the computing system 1100.

The computing system 1100 may include one or more interface 1140 devicessuch as input devices, output devices and combination input/outputdevices. Interface 1140 devices may receive input or provide output.More particularly, output devices may render information for externalpresentation. Input devices may accept information from externalsources. Examples of interface 1140 devices include keyboards, mousedevices, trackballs, microphones, touch screens, printing devices,display screens, speakers, network interface cards, storage devices,etc. Interface 1140 devices allow the computing system 1100 to exchangeinformation and to communicate with external entities, such as users andother systems.

The data storage element 1150 includes a computer readable and writeablenonvolatile, or non-transitory, data storage medium in whichinstructions may be stored that define a program, or other object, thatis executed by the processor 1110. The data storage element 1150 alsomay include information that is recorded, on or in, the medium, such asdevice identifiers and bonded keys, for example, and processed by theprocessor 1110 during execution of one or more programs. Morespecifically, the information may be stored in one or more datastructures specifically configured to conserve storage space or increasedata exchange performance. The instructions may be persistently storedas encoded signals, and instructions may cause the processor 1110 toperform any of the functions described herein. The medium may, forexample, be optical disk, magnetic disk or flash memory 1120, amongothers. In operation, the processor 1110 or some other controller causesdata to be read from the storage element 1150 into another memory, suchas the memory 1120, that allows for faster access to the information bythe processor 1110 than does the storage medium included in the datastorage element 1150. A variety of components may manage data movementbetween the storage element 1150 and other memory elements and examplesare not limited to particular data management components. Further,examples are not limited to a particular memory system or data storagesystem.

Although the computing system 1100 is shown by way of example as onetype of computing system 1100 upon which various aspects and functionsmay be practiced, aspects and functions are not limited to beingimplemented on the computing system 1100 as shown in FIG. 11. Variousaspects and functions may be practiced on one or more computers havingdifferent architectures or components than that shown in FIG. 11. Forinstance, the computing system 1100 may include specially programmed,special-purpose hardware, such as an application-specific integratedcircuit (“ASIC”) tailored to perform a particular operation disclosedherein. Another example may perform the same operation using a grid ofseveral computing devices running operating systems with variousprocessors and/or several specialized computing devices runningproprietary hardware and operating systems.

The computing system 1100 may be a computing system 1100 including anoperating system that manages at least a portion of the hardwareelements included in the computing system 1100. In some examples, aprocessor or controller, such as the processor 1110, executes anoperating system. In other examples the processor 1110 may include otherforms of logic, such as an ASIC, FPGA, or DSP, and may have other formsof instruction sets, and may or may not execute an operating system.

In some examples, the components disclosed herein may read parametersthat affect the functions performed by the components. These parametersmay be physically stored in any form of suitable memory includingvolatile memory (such as RAM) or nonvolatile memory (such as flashmemory). In addition, the parameters may be logically stored in aproprietary data structure (such as a database or file defined by anapplication) or in a commonly shared data structure (such as anapplication registry that is defined by an operating system). Inaddition, some examples provide for both system and user interfaces thatallow external entities to modify the parameters and thereby configurethe behavior of the components.

Various examples of the methods and apparatuses discussed herein are notlimited in application to the details of construction and thearrangement of components set forth in the above descriptions orillustrated in the accompanying drawings. The methods and apparatusesare capable of implementation in various embodiments and of beingpracticed or of being carried out in various ways. Examples of specificimplementations are provided herein for illustrative purposes only andare not intended to be limiting. Also, the phraseology and terminologyused herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regardedas limiting. The use herein of “including,” “comprising,” “having,”“containing,” “involving,” and variations thereof is meant to encompassthe items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well asadditional items. References to “or” may be construed as inclusive sothat any terms described using “or” may indicate any of a single, morethan one, and all of the described terms. Any references to front andback, left and right, top and bottom, upper and lower, and vertical andhorizontal are intended for convenience of description, not to limit thepresent systems and methods or their components to any one positional orspatial orientation.

Having described above several aspects of at least one embodiment, it isto be appreciated various alterations, modifications, and improvementswill readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations,modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of thisdisclosure and are intended to be within the scope of the invention.Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way ofexample only, and the scope of the invention should be determined fromproper construction of the appended claims, and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. An audio system, comprising: an audio input configured to receive an input signal from a microphone, the input signal including audio content; a plurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces, each of the short-range wireless audio interfaces configured to couple wirelessly to an audio device and to provide an output signal for rendering into an acoustic signal by the audio device; and a controller coupled to the audio input and the plurality of wireless audio interfaces and configured to receive the input signal and to selectively provide the audio content in the output signal to one or more of the plurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces.
 2. The audio system of claim 1 further comprising an audio output configured to provide a second output signal to a loudspeaker, the controller being further configured to selectively receive a second input signal from a selected one of the plurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces and to provide the second output signal to the audio output based upon the second input signal.
 3. The audio system of claim 1 wherein the controller is further configured to selectively convey audio signals between a plurality of audio devices, each of the plurality of audio devices coupled to at least one of the plurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces.
 4. The audio system of claim 3 wherein the controller is further configured to store a name associated with one or more of the plurality of audio devices, and to accept a user selection of one or more of the names from a user interface, and to selectively convey the audio signals between the plurality of audio devices based upon the user selection.
 5. The audio system of claim 4 wherein the user selection of one or more of the names from the user interface includes at least one of voice recognition of the one or more names or selection of the one or more names via a touchscreen.
 6. The audio system of claim 1 further comprising an infotainment unit of an automobile, the microphone configured to be mounted in the automobile, the controller being coupled to the infotainment unit, and the controller being further configured to selectively convey audio signals between a plurality of devices selected from a group comprising the microphone, any of the plurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces, and the infotainment unit.
 7. The audio system of claim 1 wherein the controller is coupled to the plurality of short-range wireless audio interfaces via an audio bus.
 8. The audio system of claim 1 wherein the audio input is a wireless audio interface and the controller is coupled to the microphone by the wireless audio interface.
 9. An audio system, comprising: one or more audio interfaces, at least one of the one or more audio interfaces configured to couple to one or more wireless audio interfaces; and an audio hub coupled to the one or more audio interfaces, the audio hub configured to detect a presence of one or more headphones via the one or more wireless audio interfaces and to establish a communication channel between a plurality of devices selected from a group comprising the one or more headphones, an infotainment head unit, a microphone, and a speaker, and to convey audio content between the plurality of devices.
 10. The audio system of claim 9, wherein at least one of the one or more headphones is in wireless communication with a personal device, wherein the plurality of devices is selected from the group further comprising the personal device.
 11. The audio system of claim 9, wherein the audio hub is in further communication with a plurality of fixed speakers in a vehicle, wherein at least one of the one or more headphones is in wireless communication with a personal device, wherein the plurality of devices is selected from the group further comprising the personal device and the plurality of fixed speakers, and wherein conveying audio content further comprises transmitting audio from the personal device to at least some of the plurality of fixed speakers.
 12. The audio system of claim 9, wherein conveying the audio content via the audio hub comprises transmitting audio between the microphone and the speaker and one, some, or all of the one or more headphones.
 13. The audio system of claim 9, wherein conveying the audio content via the audio hub comprises transmitting first audio between the one or more headphones while second audio is transmitted between an infotainment head unit and the speaker, the first audio being different from the second audio.
 14. The audio system of claim 9, wherein conveying the audio content via the audio hub comprises transmitting first audio between the microphone, the speaker, and at least a first headphones of the one or more headphones; and transmitting second audio between the one or more headphones other than the first headphones, the first audio being different from the second audio.
 15. A method for distributing audio that includes an audio hub, a wireless interface, a microphone configured to pick up a user's voice, and a speaker located proximal to an ear of the user, the method comprising: detecting a presence of one or more headphones, via the wireless interface; establishing respective bi-directional wireless communication channels between each of the one or more headphones and the hub; and transmitting audio via the audio hub between a plurality of devices selected from a group comprising an infotainment head unit, the microphone, the speaker, and the one or more headphones.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein at least one of the one or more headphones is in wireless communication with a personal device, wherein the plurality of devices is selected from the group further comprising the personal device, and wherein transmitting audio via the audio hub further comprises transmitting audio from the personal device to at least one of the one or more headphones or the speakers.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the audio hub is in further communication with a plurality of fixed speakers in a vehicle, wherein at least one of the one or more headphones is in wireless communication with a personal device, wherein the plurality of devices is selected from the group further comprising the personal device and the plurality of fixed speakers, and wherein transmitting audio via the audio hub further comprises transmitting audio from the personal device to at least some of the plurality of fixed speakers.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein transmitting audio via the audio hub comprises transmitting audio between the microphone and the speaker and one, some, or all of the one or more headphones.
 19. The method of claim 15, wherein transmitting audio via the audio hub comprises transmitting first audio between the one or more headphones while second audio is transmitted between an infotainment head unit and the speaker, the first audio being different from the second audio.
 20. The method of claim 15, wherein transmitting audio via the audio hub comprises transmitting first audio between the microphone, the speaker, and at least a first headphones of the one or more headphones; and transmitting second audio between the one or more headphones other than the first headphones, the first audio being different from the second audio. 